How Rembrandt Surpassed the Ancients, Italians and Rubens As the Master of ‘The Passions of the Soul’1 63
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bmgn - Low Countries Historical Review | Volume 129-2 (2014) | pp. 63-89 How Rembrandt surpassed the Ancients, Italians and Rubens as the Master of ‘the Passions of the Soul’1 63 eric jan sluijter The passions had to be rendered through the movements of the human figure (Van Mander); however it was an Italian cliché that Netherlandish artists were not able to depict figures properly. This article demonstrates how Rembrandt from his earliest works promoted the image of being the master of the lijdingen des gemoeds. Throughout his career Rembrandt aspired to surpass the artists of antiquity and the Italians through the portrayal of the passions to arouse the strongest possible empathy in the viewer, as Huygens immediately recognised. It is argued that concepts grafted onto classical rhetoric, such as oogenblikkige beweging (a term of his pupil Van Hoogstraten; a violent movement due to a sudden reversal of emotion that involves the viewer forcefully) were paramount in his earlier period, and in which one finds parallels with the Senecan-Scaligerian tragedies popular at that time. In contrast, in his later works Rembrandt avoided any movement, realising that the depiction of violent motion undermines the persuasiveness of the still image; he forces the viewer to imagine the inner conflicts in the minds of the protagonists who recognise their fate. To engage the viewer powerfully through a radical ‘from life’ ideology (situating himself in a northern tradition) was for Rembrandt a central concern in his continuous competition with the greatest exponents of his art (Titian, Rubens). © 2014 Royal Netherlands Historical Society | knhg Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License urn:nbn:nl:ui:10-1-110091 | www.bmgn-lchr.nl | e-issn 2211-2898 | print issn 0615-0505 batavian phlegm? Hoe Rembrandt schilders uit de Oudheid, de Italianen en Rubens overtrof als meester van de ‘lijdingen des gemoeds’. De passies dienden te worden verbeeld door middel van de bewegingen van de ledematen van de menselijke figuur (Van Mander), maar het was een Italiaanse gemeenplaats dat noorderlingen slecht waren in het schilderen van figuren. In dit artikel wordt gedemonstreerd hoe Rembrandt zich vanaf zijn vroegste werk nadrukkelijk presenteerde als dé meester van de ‘lijdingen des gemoeds’ en gedurende zijn gehele carrière ernaar streefde om door middel van de verbeelding van de passies en het opwekken van een zo groot mogelijke empathie bij de toeschouwer de schilders uit de Oudheid en de Italianen te overtreffen, zoals Huygens direct onderkende. Beargumenteerd wordt dat een op de klassieke retorica geënt begrip als ‘oogenblikkige beweeging’ (een term van zijn leerling Van Hoogstraten: een heftige beweging veroorzaakt door een plotselinge omslag van emotie die de toeschouwer meebeleeft) voor zijn vroegere werk cruciaal was, waarbij parallellen met de in die tijd populaire Senecaans-Scaligeriaanse tragedie zijn aan te wijzen. In zijn latere werk vermijdt hij daarentegen elke beweging, zich realiserend dat de uitbeelding van heftige beweging de overtuigingskracht van het stilstaande beeld ondermijnt, en dwingt hij de toeschouwer zich in te leven in de innerlijke conflicten van figuren die hun lot doorzien. Het krachtig betrekken van de toeschouwer bij het voorgestelde door middel van een radicale ‘naar het leven’ ideologie, waarmee hij zich in een Noordelijke traditie plaatste, stond voor Rembrandt altijd centraal bij zijn permanente wedijver met de groten in zijn vak (Titiaan, Rubens). The Dutch and the depiction of figures and passions In the mid sixteenth century we already find the first traces of what would become a commonplace of Dutch art: Dutch painters were highly proficient in ‘copying’ nature, were highly skilled in technical matters, preferred less exalted subjects and were especially good at landscapes. In written texts this started with Michelangelo’s alleged criticism that painters from the north only depicted things that please the eye and did so through exact imitation of the external appearance of things, and ‘although it pleases some persons, it is done without reason or art, without measure or proportion without skilful selection or boldness, and without substance or force’.2 This condescending 1 I am grateful to the anonymous reviewers, the his treatise Dialogos de Roma-Da pitura antiga editorial board, and to Herman Roodenburg and (1548). For an English translation see: Francisco de Catrien Santing for their critical comments. Holanda, Four Dialogues on Painting, trans. A.F.G. 2 The Portuguese artist Francisco de Holanda, Bell (London 1928) 16. Dutch translation: Francisco who had moved in the circle of Vittoria Colonna de Holanda, Romeinse dialogen. Gesprekken met and Michelangelo, ‘quotes’ Michelangelo in Michelangelo en Vittoria Colonna, trans. A. Boon (Amsterdam 1993) 24-25. ‘Italian’ criticism – rooted in a humanistic ideology that was based on classical rhetoric (and fed by jealousy about the fact that paintings and prints from the Netherlands were much sought after by sixteenth-century Italian collectors) – was to have a long life. In the Netherlands itself elements of this negative reputation would be turned around in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century and given favourable connotations by Dutch humanists such as Hadrianus Junius and Hugo de Groot, as part of a positive self image – technical ingenuity, knowledge of optical matters, and being particularly true to nature were highlighted and legitimised by invoking parallels with sluijter renowned painters from antiquity.3 As Frans Grijzenhout demonstrated, it was only late in the seventeenth century that such stereotypes came to be connected with the cold and wet temperament of the Dutch as the cause of their slow but patient mind, in contrast to the sanguine Italians whose hot brain made them 65 more suitable for grand history paintings.4 Karel van Mander in his Schilder-Boeck published in 1604, repeated how several times, that Italians always denounced painters from the Netherlands as being unable to paint human figures properly, admitting however, that rembrandt northerners were especially good at painting landscapes. At one point Van Mander quotes a poem by Domenicus Lampsonius, who gave as the reason that the Italians use their brains, while the Dutch have ingenuity in their surpassed hands.5 Van Mander urged Netherlandish artists to do their utmost to belie the opinion of the Italians. In Den Grondt der Edel vry Schilder-const (The foundation of the noble and free art of painting), he devoted a chapter to the proportions the of figures, one to pose and bearing, and a whole chapter to the ‘Representation ancients, 3 See E.J. Sluijter, ‘“Vele vermaerde ende 4 F. Grijzenhout, ‘“Schilders van zulk een lome en italians trefflicke schilders”. Beelden van de Hollandse vochtiger gesteldheid”. Beeld en zelfbeeld van schilderkunst’, in: T. de Nijs and E. Beukers (eds.), de Nederlandse schilderkunst in de zeventiende and Geschiedenis van Holland 1572 tot 1795 (Hilversum eeuw’, Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de 2002) volume 2, 379-420, in particular 386-390. Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 107:4 (1992) 726-744. rubens Hadrianus Junius, Batavia (Leiden 1588) 238- 5 Karel van Mander, Den Grondt der Edel vry Schilder- 240, in particular in his paragraphs on Antonie const, in: idem, Het Schilder-Boeck (Haarlem 1604) Mor and Pieter Aertsen (with comparisons to cap. I: 71-72, fol. 6r and V:13, fol. 15v; and idem, Parrhasius and Piraeicus); for Hugo de Groot on Het Leven der Doorluchtighe Nederlandtsche en painting in Paralellon Republicarum (1602), see: M. Hooghduytsche Schilders, in: idem, Schilder-Boeck, Meijer Drees, Andere landen, andere mensen. De fol. 215r and 219r. The poem (translated by Van beeldvorming van Holland versus Spanje en Engeland Mander from Lampsonius’ Latin verse) in the life omstreeks 1650 (The Hague 1997) 47-48 and J. of Jan van Amstel (fol. 215r). See also H. Miedema, Becker, ‘Ketters in de kunst. Nederlandse kunst Den grondt der edel vry schilder-const (Utrecht 1973) als afwijking van de regel’, in: H. Hendricx and T. volume II, 409-410. Hoenselaars (eds.), Vreemd volk. Beeldvorming over buitenlanders in de vroegmoderne tijd (Amsterdam 1998) 21-54, 33-34. batavian phlegm? of the Affects, Passions, Desires and Sufferings of Men’, which he called ‘the kernel and soul of painting’.6 Naturally, great ability in depicting figures was a prerequisite, because [...] the affects and passions which move the heart and the senses from within, make the external limbs react and show demonstrable signs through an observable movement in bearing, appearance and actions, as he wrote in the first strophe of this chapter.7 Indeed some artists, such as Van Mander’s friends Hendrick Goltzius and Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem, did everything in their power to demonstrate their virtuosity in depicting human figures, their movements and passions. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, it was Rembrandt’s master, Pieter Lastman in particular, who, stimulated by new developments in Italy8, quite literally followed Van Mander’s advice [...] to pay attention to the movement of the exterior of the body and the changes and stirring of the limbs, so that everyone can easily see what our figures experience and what they do.9 This would culminate in the art of his pupil Rembrandt, who presented himself as the pre-eminent master of the passions. He did so from the very start of his career, often directly emulating Lastman and demonstrating what he was able to achieve with the same subjects and motifs; from his Balaam and the Ass of 1626 to Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac, or Susanna Surprised by the Elders of 1636, he takes compositions of his former master as a starting point to explore how to depict affects in a more natural and powerful way.10 Through the ages Rembrandt has been recognised as the greatest painter of the representation of the passions. One wonders whether the commonplace that northern painters were not able to depict figures also stimulated its ultimate rebuttal – the fact that, of all people, a Dutchman became the pre-eminent master of the expression of passions through the depiction of the human figure.